Ep 171. Fistfuls of Pinecones Bring Happiness

In this episode, I share a charming scene of a young girl gathering pinecones by the fistful outside the Runway Café bringing her and me such happiness. May we all cherish our fists of treasures, living with gratitude for the beautiful gifts in our lives.

We wrap up with an exchange on the side of the road about Cornflowers often mistaken for Bachelor Buttons and the origin of Cornflowers on the original Corning Ware plates. I hope you enjoy the story. 

 Thank you for tuning in. 

 Related Stories & Helpful Links:

The Secret Life of Pinecones – Blog Post

Ep 92. The Secret Life of Pinecones

 Bachelor Buttons vs. Chicory Look-alikes -  Blog Post

Ep 119. Bachelor Buttons vs. Chicory Look-alike

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I'd love to hear your garden and nature stories and your thoughts about topics for future podcast episodes. You can email me at AskMaryStone@gmail.com. 

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 Thank you for sharing the Garden of Life,

Mary Stone, Columnist & Garden Designer

                                        AskMaryStone.com

More about the Podcast and Column:

Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
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Transcript

Ep 171. Fistfuls of Pinecones Bring Happiness

Sat, Jul 27, 2024 9:12PM • 10:10

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

pinecones, mom, dilemmas, bachelor, garden, porch, buttons, child, chicory, sitting, girl, cicadas, treasures, susan, song, flower, chat, gingham shirt, daffodils, corning, ware, mary stone, garden, nature, inspiration

SPEAKERS

Mary Stone

Mary Stone  00:00

Mary, Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone, and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens. It's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learn from Mother Nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in, in the spirit of learning from each other, we have lots to talk about. 

Mary Stone  00:26

Hello, there. It's Mary Stone on the screen porch. I was going to sit with you this morning, but a drizzle kicked in, and I thought, well, that's a good thing. The cicadas will stop singing in the trees. And it did work for a while, but then the chorus began. And so here I am in the evening. The sun is falling, actually, it's almost dark, and we are between the songs of the cicadas before the nighttime tree crickets begin their chorus, although I hear in the background a bullfrog singing his song. Anyway, I want to thank those that reached back after last week's chat about the Early Acorn Drop -Lessons of Letting go. Acorns aren't the only thing that seems to be dropping early. While walking on the Paulinskill  Rail Trail on Sunday, I meandered further and landed at our local airport. While offering water to my canine kid, I witnessed a little girl gathering pinecones.  Grand Norway spruces shade the outdoor eating space at the Runway Cafe. As I watched, I dictated the scene as it was unfolding, and I look forward to sharing the story, along with a spontaneous chat on the side of the road about cornflowers. And it starts like this. 

Mary Stone  01:41

Hello, fellow listeners and readers. I am sitting at the airport as I speak with you here in Blairstown, New Jersey, watching a little girl gathering pinecones and putting them on a picnic bench where her mom sits with two other ladies, and there's a baby bassinet on the table. No one seems to be noticing the child on the scout of her treasures, collecting them with such happiness, She's talking to herself as she approaches them. She finds one, then two. I hear the little girl's voice counting them, four, five. Her hands are full. I don't think she can hold anymore. She is adorable in her blue sundress, pink Crocs and pigtails. Now she's sitting on the ground to reach another pinecone that she found under a picnic table next door. As she picks it up, others in her hand drop, she picks them back up and returns to her mom. Her fists are crammed with her treasures, all the while talking to herself, she's putting them on the bench beside her mom. There must be a dozen or so by now. Mom and her friends don't seem to engage in the finds. 

Mary Stone  02:54

She's heading off prancing towards more. Mom calls for her. I'm looking for something, the little girl says, We have to go. Mom says, in return. Come, come, come, Jolee come. Jolee Come, come, come on  here. That's me calling Jolee. She was walking around the vast Norway Spruce that I'm sitting under- the trunk, hiding her from view. Maybe she's looking for pinecones too to nibble on, but there are no pinecones here. Perhaps the little girl snagged them all before we arrived. 

Mary Stone  03:27

My mind drifts to when I picked daffodils from my mom. Maybe I was five. Mom and her neighbors were in a deep discussion. The punchline is, they were the neighbor’s daffodils. Mom was very unhappy that I picked something that was not ours to pick here. I thought I was doing something kind. 

Mary Stone  03:45

They're leaving now, and the little girl wants to take her pinecones, and the mother explains that we can't. They only allow you to take a few. The precious little girl seemed to accept the logic, grasping one pinecone in her left hand and holding her mom's hand in her right. May we all cherish our fists of treasures, living with gratitude for the beautiful gifts in our lives. Garden Dilemmas. AskMaryStone.com 

Mary Stone  04:14

It was such a delight to watch this little child and her happiness just unfolding and her wonderment about the pinecones under the trees. There's a quote by Henry David Thoreau in the book Walden, every child begins the world again. Isn't that true? 

Mary Stone  04:34

So yesterday, while walking along the road, my friends Susan and Don drove by with a load of wood chips. They stopped to chat. Jolee gave her usual howls of Hello. What do you call those flowers? Susan asked, pointing to the pale blue lovelies we see on the side of the road in mid to late summer. I always called them bachelor buttons. I call them cornflowers because when they start to bloom, I know it's time to get corn.  

Mary Stone  05:00

Common names are such fun, often descriptive, but it wasn't until I researched what I thought were bachelor buttons that I found that I confused them with the common chicory. They both share the common name bachelor buttons, and both are also called cornflower. Common chicory is also known as blue Daisy, blue dandelion, blue sailors, blue weed, horseweed and ragged sailors. So interesting. How many common names can come out of one flower. Learning about these blue beauties, origins, differences and love stories is such fun. And there's a chicory fairy poem sure to delight that we spoke about in episode 119, Bachelor Buttons versus Chicory Look alike. I'll put a link in the show notes. I highly recommend that episode. It's such fun to listen to.

Mary Stone  05:51

As a child, I'd pick the flowers of the bachelor buttons and wear them like they were buttons. It's a flower of the original Corning ware, Susan added. I hadn't known that. Well, that piqued my interest, and so on with the research cap.  Stanley Donald Stuckey lived almost a century from 1915 to 2014 and held 60 patents. Pyro Ceram, the white glass ceramic material accident, was one of them. It was originally used in the ballistic missile program as a heat resistant material for nose cones cites Wikipedia. It was later branded Corning ware in 1958 by Corning Glass Works that later became Corning Inc. And those of us who grew up eating on the Corning ware plates know that it can go from the freezer to the oven to the microwave, onto the stovetop or under a broiler, and of course, it's dishwasher safe. I'm smiling about this because I don't think we had a dishwasher, and certainly do not have a microwave in the day. After Corning sold the Consumer Products Division, it became Corelle brands. 

Mary Stone  06:58

When I rented my first apartment in New York City, I bought a solid white set of Corning ware for myself. I think it was called French white, far more elegant than the white with a gold flower border we grew up with, or so I thought. But you can take the farmer out of the country, but you can't take the farmer out of the girl. I actually looked up who first said that saying, and there's multiple theories about it. I think it was in a song or two. I've shared before how I traveled to the Big Apple via Amtrak to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology sporting overalls and a gingham shirt, clearly not suited for a career in high fashion. How grateful I am that life led me to a career in the fashion of plants instead. 

Mary Stone  07:43

As it turns out, the wheat pattern was the first to be test marketed in 1958 but it didn't test well, so it was dropped for the blue cornflower pattern. I wonder if it was fashioned to mimic Chicory or Bachelor buttons, same, same on a plate. Well, now the tree crickets are in their song and glory. I don't know if you hear them. I'm hoping I can capture the bullfrog, because it's answering back in such a deep baritone sound. Anyway, thinking about these stories of my past, of our past, because I bet many of you had Corelle dishes, and I bet many of you admire the bachelor buttons on the side of the road. And maybe you can find that little girl, a little boy, inside of you. As you look around at the miracles in life and nature and just the glory of it. I mean, really, it's quite astounding how the cycles of nature unfold and bring about things that to a child are just so new and different. And to us, it becomes old hat, but it really isn't. If you just take time to cherish that moment, it can change so quickly, but with that change, and then with that shift, comes other new things to enjoy and marvel at. So may we all have a fistful of pinecones and living and happiness. That is what I wish for you. Thank you for joining me on the screen porch. I always enjoy our time together, and I hope you have as well, and if you haven't subscribed to the podcast or given us a five-star review, which I would so appreciate, because for some magical reason, the more of those we have, the more find us, and the more that we'll learn and grow in the garden of life. It means so much. See you next time on the screen porch.

Mary Stone  09:40

You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden Dilemmas com and on Instagram at hashtag. Mary Elaine Stone Garden Dilemmas Delights and Discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch, and always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.